Story:Star Trek: Conflict/Logic
The is critically damaged by the Romulans, the New Insurrectionists rescue its crew, including a Vulcan science officer and two Starfleet Academy students. Summary Chapter One Admiral Black and his ship, the , have been sent to ferry a group of students from Starfleet Academy on their first field trip onboard a real starship. He considers this a punishment for his "insignificant" killings of Romulans some three weeks back. A single Romulan Warbird decloaks and its captain, Arius Rex, demands that Black answer for the annihilation of 600,000 Romulans, the "insignificant killings" some three weeks back. When Black insults Rex, the battle begins but the Warbird fires first, disabling the Cochrane s torpedo launchers. Another shot disables the phase inductors: both phasers and torpedoes are offline. With shields failing, Black sends his first officer, a Vulcan named Spyrak, to keep the students alive at all costs. He then turns to the viewscreen, where he sees a photon torpedo from the Romulan vessel oncoming. Some three light years away, Edward Shield is happy to be back on the . The mutineers have been silent, if not "groveling" at his feet to regain his trust. But this hardly makes him happy: he is concerned that, no matter what has happened, they continue to drift hopelessly from one sector of space to another, running for their lives, rather than doing something about the corruption. As he takes his place on the Bridge, Lianna Young reports having received a subspace SOS from the . Despite the fact that Admiral Black is a part of Sanders' organization, Shield concedes and the two ships set out to rescue their worst enemies. Chapter Two Upon reaching the ''Cochrane'' s wreck, they scan for lifeforms and find one hundred and seven still alive. They are beamed aboard the ''Enterprise'' s Sick Bay since the hasn't had a Chief Medical Officer since Dr. von Aldrich died over Reui. Shield sends an engineering crew with EV suits onto the USS Cochrane to salvage whatever is needed. He sends Fredericks, but discovers that he had been dead since Titan: he appoints Katie to Chief Engineer and sends her to command the Away Team as they salvage what they can of the wrecked ship. On the Enterprise, Shield is informed by Dr. Boreas that of the survivors - sixty Humans, twenty-two Vulcans, ten Andorians, seven Bolians and the last eight being a mixture of various other races, including a Tellarite, two Bajorans and several others - only five of them are crewmen. Shield asks to see the crewman in the most stable condition, a Vulcan whose rank is First Officer. Shield speaks with the Vulcan, whose name is Spyrak, and asks him of their mission. The Vulcan replies that they were ferrying students on a field trip, and then, remembering his charge, gets up and begins aiding Dr. Boreas in their medical treatment. As Shield leaves, he gets a call from Katie with the Away Team: they will be transporting all the supplies and data they can, but they've found out something. :Arcturus Black is dead. Chapter Three Katie is on the Bridge of the , where she has found Black, buried in the rubble of the destroyed helm stations. From what she can see, Katie reports to the Captain back on the that the Bridge caved in when a photon torpedo struck it head on, and Black was buried in the explosion. Shield has mixed feelings. First, he says that the people who have been hurt by Black are avenged by his death, but now they also don't have a link to Sanders or his plans. Even so, he decides that they should take the Cochrane' back to Jupiter Station just to give it back to Starfleet. At this request, Werner states that it can't be done. Lianna Young then cuts on from the and says that Wellington performed it, and she'll be beaming onto the ''Enterprise shortly forthwith in order to make the warp-transport possible. Young and Wellington are now aboard the Enterprise-C, and have rigged the ship to carry the Cochrane in its tractor beam while in warp ([[Story:Star Trek: Conflict/Corruption|which had been used to save the Enterprise-C after Narendra III]]). Young orders Katie to keep the tractor beam active until they reach their destination, no matter what. As they are leaving, Young visits the Sick Bay and meets Beverly Howard, one of the students rescued from the , who is assisting Dr. Boreas. Young admires her skill and asks her if she would take the empty position of Chief Medical Officer on the . Howard thanks Young for her kind offer, but says that she's barely a student and therefore not qualified to be the CMO of a starship. As Young leaves, she is stopped by Spyrak. He then says that he needs her help, for returning to Admiral Sanders. Chapter Four Young says that there's nothing she can do, since Yakob Sanders is their enemy. Spyrak says that its not logical for the Federation to make enemies of its own, but once again insists that he be given a shuttle so that he can take the students back to Earth and report on the death of Admiral Black. The ships drop out of warp near Jupiter and send out a transmission to Earth that they have the remains of a fallen ship that they wish to be returned with honor. The responds to the call and arrives. Shield and Young come face to face with Admiral Sanders for the first time since Typhon III. He tells them that he knew about the death of Admiral Black and says that his loss was regrettable, but not fatal. He then destroys the remains of the {USS|Cochrane}}, and targets both ships for destruction, saying that Order 865 still stands and that any survivors of the Cochrane whom they try to give back will be shot and killed on sight. Meanwhile, while under bombardment from the , Sick Bay on both ships is flooded with the wounded. Dr. Boreas is swamped, but the count of the wounded on the keeps rising. He uses his authority as the Chief Medical Officer on the to order Beverly Howard onto the Admonitor to help the wounded. As she heads to the Shuttle-bay to take a shuttle to the Admonitor, she sees Spyrak taking one of his own and departing towards the . Regardless, she then takes a shuttle and heads over to the Admonitor. The is holding its own against the ''Pericles'' due to its S'srelli adaptive armor, but the Enterprise-C has lost its shields. Admiral Sanders then orders his men to beam onto the ship and kill everyone before the ship is scuttled. His reasoning is that he wants to make sure they're all dead before destroying the ship, in case some beam off or find some means of escape while the ship is being destroyed. On the Bridge of the ''Enterprise''-C, Edward Shield receives an intruder alert, just as Spyrak's shuttle departs from the shuttle-bay. Just then, he gets a call from Sick Bay: the Admiral's away team is killing the wounded in Sick Bay. Chapter Five Jack Crusher, one of the wounded Humans, takes down one of the Admiral's away team, takes his phaser and pushes them out of Sick Bay. The ''Enterprise''-C's MACO team comes to protect the wounded, but find the first away team completely subdued by Crusher. He then leads them throughout the ship, where they hunt down any other teams of crewmen from the that are being periodically beamed over and subdue them (none of them are killed). Angered by the loss of his away teams, Sanders orders the ''Pericles'' to destroy the ''Enterprise''-C. Just then, a transmission from Spyrak comes through. Sanders refuses to listen to Spyrak's entreaties for a cease-fire, or for the safe return of the students: he tells the Vulcan that they'll be killed if they show themselves in Federation territory, and then he proceeds to order the Pericles to destroy the shuttle. But Spyrak is beamed out of the exploding shuttle and onto the just at the last minute and it and the Enterprise-C then leave at maximum warp, but not before beaming the subdued away teams back onto the . Sanders has them all killed for their failure. The situation with the wounded is over, and both ships are now trying once again to repair the damage. Shield promotes Jack Crusher to Commander of the ship's MACO division, and Young promotes Beverly Howard to acting medical officer and Spyrak to science officer. Both captains then tell them that they cannot leave, since they would be killed if they appear in Federation territory. Both captains then give them the chance to leave, but they refuse, saying that they'd rather fight for the chance to live than run right into a sudden and unjust death. With the new crew aboard, the ships are now ready to do what they can to end the conflict. Category:Star Trek: Conflict Episodes